How Far We've Come
by AridaRedbird
Summary: This is a purely OC FanFiction set in the world of the Percy Jackson. It is a story that is being written as a year 12 graduation gift for my friendship group and each character takes on an aspect of their personality. This is my first FanFiction so please no scathing reviews. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1 - Dances with Hell-Hounds

**I own nothing as all intellectual property belongs to Rick Riordan**

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My life was pretty normal before the day that I found myself racing through the streets of my home town trying to escape the very large, very hungry dog that was intent on using me as a human chew toy. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. My name is Arida and I'm 16 years old. I lived an average life with my single mum Ingrid. My dad had left before I was born so I never met the guy; personally I think that we're better off without him. If he's not going to be there to support his kid then what use is he to us? Other than that I had few close friends and a part-time job as a check out chick. So to be honest my life was really simple and really, really boring.

That was until that fateful day that I stepped out of my schools front gate late in the afternoon after spending a copious amount of time in the library to find myself knocked to the ground by the biggest dog I had ever seen. Its paw which was now resting on my chest was as big as my school bag; it was also slowly crushing my lungs and stopping me from breathing. Come to think of it that may have been a good thing because his breath truly stunk, as usual that was one of the very unhelpful thoughts that was going through my head at this point. Another one was 'Great, I'm going to die of suffocation because a giant dog stepped on me.'

I was starting to see stars around the outside of my vision when I noticed a slight movement out of the corner of my deep brown eye, I tried to turn to see what it was but I could barely move. Seconds ticked past and at the same time air trickled out of my lungs, I knew I was going to run out of air pretty soon so I threw all my efforts into an ill thought out escape attempt. I scraped up the last of the strength left and pushed upwards against the giant paw on my chest, hoping that this force would be enough to give me even just a centimeter of breathing room. The attempt was ill-fated though and all I did was succeed in making the dog growl at me. Because I had used up the last of my energy trying to move the paw I could only just keep myself awake, let alone find it in me to try again. My vision started to go cloudy and just as I was about to give in and black out the weight was lifted off my chest. Taking my first deep breath in what seemed like hours I stared upwards from my place on the ground thanking whatever gods or goddesses that just saved my life. Slowly I regained the ability to move and in a few minutes I was able to get back on my feet.

Only to see the demon dog sprawled on the ground next to me. Standing next to it was… my English teacher? Wait what. But there she was standing with her usual heeled shoes on the ground beside her and her hair a wild mess surrounding her shoulders. On her face she wore a manic grin and laying on the ground nest to her was a sword made of bronze and strapped to her waist was a dagger about as long as my forearm. She didn't notice when I got to my feet because she was busily bandaging a nasty cut on her arm which was bleeding profusely. I waited until she finished doing her first aid before I start screaming mainly because I was fascinated by the weapon that lay at her feet. The sword was Greek in design and looked extremely sharp and lethal, why would my English teacher have a weapon on her at school, wasn't that illegal? I was so wrapped up in staring at the weapon glinting in the afternoon sun I didn't even notice that Miss O had moved over to stand next to me until I felt her arm around my shoulders.

"Are you okay Arida?" she asked looking me up and down the same way a parent would look at a small child who had just fallen down.

'What the hell just happened?' I whispered back to her in response as I couldn't seem to find my voice, 'and what is that?'

A slight smile touched the edges of her mouth while her grey eyes sparked with a hidden flame. That smile turned into a grin as Miss O announced 'that was a hell-hound a beast from the depths of the Underworld and pets of the god Hades. They only obey him and Hades only sends them after people he thinks are threats.'

I looked at her confused. 'Then why would it be after me?'

'Sweetie this is going to be hard for you to take but it was after you because you're a Demigod.

'I'm a what?' I said shocked. I mean I loved Greek Mythology and I knew all about Demigods. It just wasn't possible for me to be one, the gods didn't actually exist. Did they?

'A Demigod, a child of both a human and a god.' Miss O said staring me straight in the eye as if to say doesn't be scared.

"But how do you know about all this?" I asked matching her gaze.

"Because I'm one too…" was all she managed to get out before the great mound of fur twitched and slowly began to move. A clatter sounded at my feet and I looked down to see Miss O's dagger lying between them.

'You're going to need that, now when I say run you are going to run as fast as you can.' She stated while grabbing her sword off the ground where she had left it. She rolled her shoulders stretching out the muscles that were still tight after her last fight.

'Run? Where?' I demanded terror seeping into my voice.

'Home and wait for me there.'

I nodded to say that I understood although I was hoping that I wouldn't screw up and trip like I usually did.

"Arida run!" Miss O said as the Hell Hound got unsteadily to its feet. Taking no time to react I sprinted away tossing my school bag and all my homework off to the side as I went, I didn't need it's extra weight slowing me down. A wave of adrenaline surged through my body and gave me a burst of extra energy and speed. My heart was pumping through my chest and threatening to break free. At this point I stopped thinking and focused my feet pounding on the pavement, trying to match them to the beat of my racing heart. Never before had I enjoyed running but I this time was totally different and utterly exhilarating.


	2. Chapter 2 - Arrows and Unlikely Friends

I reached my front door around ten minutes later. As I stood there clutching at the door frame with one hand and the dagger in the other struggling to get a deep breath 'note to self. Sprinting after almost suffocating is not a good idea' I thought to myself. Then the reality of the situation hit me. It was like a wrecking ball had slammed into my already aching chest. I was a Demigod, a child of some ancient god who wasn't supposed to exist.

I wouldn't in my wildest dreams have ever believed that this could ever happen or that this was real but the scrapes on my hands and the vision of the great hulking dog are proof that this was actually happening and that I was no longer safe.

The sound of the footsteps snapped me out of my thoughts: I spun around in my heel clutching my dagger for dear life. I was ready to attack the owner of the footsteps but I was glad to say that I stopped to identify them before I swung the dagger for my first strike. The person was Miss O, and she had someone else with her. It was a boy around my age with long artificially blonde streaked hair that was tied back in a ponytail. He looked almost as nervous as I was. Only instead of clutching a dagger like me he held a bow and he had a quiver of arrows strapped to his back.

"Weapons down Arida," said Miss O eying the dagger with a look of minor discomfort.

"Who's he?" I asked forgetting my manners for a moment focusing instead on the morbid curiosity that was engulfing me. He couldn't be human; Miss O would never bring a human into this situation and put them in any unnecessary danger.

"This is Erovan another newly found demigod I ran into him after fighting the hell-hound again". That did explain a lot and I was right about the boy not being human.

"Did you win?" I asked with a coy smile in an attempt to cover up the thoughts going through my head.

"Of course. Children of Athena always win."

"You're a daughter of Athena? Cool! Who's my godly parent? Where did you come from? Where did you learn to fight like that?" Erovan piped up behind Miss O.

"Hold your horses there kiddo," Miss O said "All these question will be answered when we get to Camp. We need to get you guys to safety as soon as possible in order to avoid any more monster attacks."

"What's this Camp that you're taking us to" I asked with curiosity.

"The Camp… Camp Half Blood is located in Long Island and it's a training camp for young demigod heroes. It gives them a chance to learn important skills needed to survive in the outside world." Miss O recited, "Now we've got that out-of-the-way let's get moving."

"Wait a moment can I please go and get a few things from inside and leave a note for my mum before we go?"

"No, no notes, but you can go grab a few items to remind you of home" Miss O said, "your mum knows where you are and you can send her message via the goddess Iris when you get to camp."

Nodding my head in acknowledgement I quickly shoved my key into the lock and slipped inside the house. Slowly I paced the halls of my house to get to my bedroom. Stepping inside I grabbed my spare backpack from the bottom of my closet and started stuffing it full of changes of underwear and my books on Greek mythology. Finally I carefully placed a photo of my mum and me on our last holiday and my favourite stuffed toy inside and zipped up the bag. Doing a final look around my room to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything important before closing the door and walking away.

Exiting my house for the last time in the foreseeable future I felt a single tear slipping from the corner of my eye as I took one last look at my home. A revving noise sounded in the street as a strawberry van parked. We were bundled into it very quickly as if some monster was going to get us in the 5 steps it took to get to the van.

The car ride was mainly silent until Erovan asked me if I was ok.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just really going to miss my mum," I said with a small smile. "So what's your story? How'd you end up here?" changing the topic from myself to this new boy.

"Well I was coming home from school and was nearly run over by Miss O battling that damn hell-hound. As soon as it spotted me I got charged. It was extremely lucky that it tripped and that gave me a chance to get out-of-the-way."

"Wow lucky break. Want some?" I said offering him one of the chocolates that I had stowed safely in the bottom of my backpack.

"Thanks," he said as he took one. As he ate I took the opportunity to

"What about your parents? Won't they notice that you're gone?" I asked.

"Well I never knew my mum and my dad is a soldier and is currently deployed. So I like to think I'm on my own."

"Yikes, I'm sorry. Have you heard from him recently?"

Erovan opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted but just as he was about to speak Miss O interrupted him stating "We're Here."


End file.
